Review – StoryBird.com – Great site for stimulating creative writing

Storybird provides a curated collection of storybook illustrations and page layout templates which students can use to create their own illustrated poems and storybooks. Storybird is all about triggering and guiding creative writing.

Students may select a pool of artwork by selecting a particular artist or by using a subtractive set of tags to refine their selection. Once they have made the choice of their image parameters they cannot change them and must continue the story telling process using that pool of images.

I was at first really turned off by the limitations of this app – no artwork uploads, no ability to add more pictures to the pool as you go. I then read the help part of the website and realized that the limitations were very intentional. The idea is to allow the users to simply get into the writing process. The pictures are like idea cues for possible directions a story can go. By being limited one is forced to look for ways to use the art in creative or metaphorical ways. This is really quite fantastic as a teaching tool.

For a more flexible experience which still provides an excellent curated collection of artwork in a modern and clean interface – but that also lets you add your own pictures and switch artists as often as you like definitely check out the amazing Indian project Storyweaver by Pratham Books